


Ten Months

by h00ligan



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-26
Updated: 2020-07-26
Packaged: 2021-02-28 00:09:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,460
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22904512
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/h00ligan/pseuds/h00ligan
Summary: Klaus was gone for ten months. But what happened in the ten months of the timeline he was pulled from?
Relationships: Allison Hargreeves & Diego Hargreeves, Allison Hargreeves & Everyone, Allison Hargreeves & Luther Hargreeves, Allison Hargreeves & Vanya Hargreeves, Diego Hargreeves & Klaus Hargreeves, Diego Hargreeves & Vanya Hargreeves, The Hargreeves Family, Vanya Hargreeves & Everyone
Comments: 13
Kudos: 68





	1. Chapter 1

It was until afternoon that Diego noticed that something wasn't right. Something that had been haunting the back of his mind while he'd been so concentrated on finding the bastards that had killed Eudora that he didn't notice... silence in the Academy. Klaus' door wide open, an unoccupied bathtub. And it almost made him drop his knife case.

How could he be so _stupid?_

They were holding Klaus as a ransom for Five, and they killed Eudora. Klaus was gone by the time he'd found her cooling body, which meant that they took a prisoner, or they didn't. And a sort of dread filled his gut at that question. There was blood all over the motel room. Dried up, from before Eudora had been shot in there. _Klaus_. How could he be so _stupid_?

"Family meeting!" He called, nowhere in particular, hoping that his siblings would hear him, and it worked, to an extent. Luther and Five came down to the foyer. "Where's Allison?"

"She was supposed to be meeting with Vanya," Luther said, walking over to the sitting room. "What's the problem? Find the guys who killed your friend?"

"The problem is that Klaus isn't back after those freaks took him and killed my friend."

"So? He probably got out in the chaos, he'll be back soon. After Ben died, he'd disappear for days and we wouldn't have a clue where he was."

"This isn't like Klaus going off on a fucking bender, Luther." Diego stood. "There was blood all over that hotel room. Not just Eudora's."

Five kept himself from making eye contact with either brother, focused on the patterns of the area rug. "That's not good. You're not supposed to take prisoners in corrections. No witnesses."

"What are you saying, Five?"

"I'm saying if he isn't back by now, he's not coming back."

"I have a lead. One of them was at Griddy's recently." He held up the receipt. "If he doesn't have Klaus, we meet up here tonight. Got it?"

"You need backup?" Luther asked. "If this is really Klaus- I know that I didn't do shit when Ben died. I don't want to do that again."

"You stay here in case they come back looking for him or Five."

"I'm One," he said, standing. "I should be making the plans."

"And what good is that shit going to do? You haven't seen him in over ten years, you don't know where he goes, you don't know these guys' movements! This isn't the time to play dad's favorites!" Diego stormed out, picking his case back up from where he'd left it in the foyer. _God, not Klaus. Not another one of us_.

* * *

Dusk was coming, and Diego slammed the door of his car. Nothing. All day, not a goddamn thing. Of course, it didn't help that he'd never seen the people's faces with kids' masks, but time was running out. It'd been almost all day. All day and no hints, not from any dealers, not from any pawn shops, not from the homeless shelters or rehabs. 

When Ben died, it felt fake. And consciously or subconsciously, everybody in the family thought it would be Klaus who died first. Should die, would die, it didn't matter if he deserved it, it was just accepted after Five's disappearance that as Four got more reckless, got more high, he was living on borrowed time. It was why he was always the lookout. The lookout didn't get in trouble. And there was part of him that felt like a failure as a brother, to have another disappear from between his fingertips just as they got Five back. After it had taken _years_ just to process the grief of losing a brother to something as permanent and definite as death, as his body in pieces across the floor. _Not Klaus, not like that_. A grim part of Diego thought that Klaus would want to leave more like Five than to die violently like Ben. He'd always joked about leaving a good looking corpse.

He was idly playing with his knives while Luther, then Five, then Allison came in. 

The Umbrella Academy, back to four members.

"What time was the shootout last night?"

"I don't know, 2200 hours?" Luther said. "Why?"

"Because that means we have to wait another two hours until we can file a missing persons report."

"Missing persons? You mean for the guys in masks?" Allison asked, then covered her mouth as something seemed to dawn on her. "Klaus... could he be in the hospital or something?"

"I've checked every hospital, rehab, pawn shop, library, gym, den, and dealer in town. None of them have seen him. Plus, they left a message for Five to find the other day that they had him. No dice on finding him when I followed up."

"Could it have been a trap?"

"I don't know how you fake that amount of blood."

"We can stretch that timeline, right? Is there any way it they broke in at eight?" She reached for the phone on the end table. "If there was really blood..."

" _Lakeview Police Department. How can we help you this evening?"_

"Hi, I'd like to file a missing persons report?"

" _Has it been 24 hours since you've last seen the individual in question?_ "

"Yes. His name's Klaus-"

"He never got his name legally changed, Allison." Diego said from his place on the couch.

"His name is Four Hargreeves." Her voice shook a little

There was typing, then clicking over the phone, the operator called a superior over, and then holding music. That overly cheery, optimistic tune humming through the line. Diego could feel his heart threatening to burst out of his chest. Could he have overdosed again in the time he was missing? Was he asleep somewhere in a bus station? The music abruptly stopped after about fifteen minutes of terse silence.

"I'm sorry, Four Hargreeves was reported missing by his parole officer six years ago and his status hasn't been updated since. At this time, he's legally dead."

"No, no, no, you don't understand, I saw him _the other day_ , he wasn't missing."

"I believe when he was arrested he had no permanent address or any way to keep up with his contact."

"I've been paying for his rehab for the past decade!" It wasn't often that Allison yelled like that.

"Rehabilitation centers, Alcoholics Anonymous, and Narcotics Anonymous all have serious privacy privileges where law enforcement is concerned."

"You can't just ignore this! My brother is missing and you're not doing anything because you, what? Gave up five years ago? This is an emergency!"

"Ma'am, I understand you're upset, but unless we're provided with forensic or physical evidence of your brother's status until you lost contact with him, there's nothing we can do. Have a nice evening." The line went dead.

"So what do we do?"

"What I've been telling you," Five said from his spot on the couch at the end of the room, in that same fucking casual tone he always had. "You saw Klaus' blood. Right?"

"Yeah, but I didn't see his body," Diego argued.

"That doesn't much matter. Corrections doesn't take prisoners, it's against policy. And if there's nowhere you think he would be, there's one option."

"That's our _brother_ you're talking about dying."

"Well, it wouldn't be the first time."


	2. Chapter 2

After they didn't have any luck with missing persons, everybody went back to their rooms, but nobody slept. At least, Allison couldn't sleep. All she could think about was Klaus shambling in, without any care or worry about how much he'd made everyone worry about him. Like when he would sneak out on benders since he was 14 and brag about the boys he'd kissed, the things he drank and smoke and ate. Ever since Dad had him do special training as kids, it was Klaus' way of making sure nobody worried about their small, frail brother. 

She snuck down to his bedroom, where the attaching wall with Vanya's had been knocked out once she had been admitted into boarding school. He'd always been jealous of her spacious room, and once it had been done, he bragged about having the biggest bedroom out of all of them. 

And on the bed... was Diego.

"I didn't expect to see you down here."

"Well, you know, sometimes the bastard sneaks in through the fire escape." She didn't point out how bloodshot his eyes were, or how frail his voice was. Not now. She hadn't seen him be this close to vulnerable since Ben died. "I want to punch him for worrying the shit out of us when he comes back."

Allison never realized that she'd never seen much of his room after he started _decorating_. Mostly, it was writing and drawings on the walls. Scribbling couplets and prose on the walls in sharpie like Five. 

_Where the fire binds, you do 3  
_ _find the pain, electrify me  
_ _you cannot kill the willing to die_

_In the darkest caves, there is light_

_Obey, obey, obey, obey, Four, Obey._

_Don't electrocute me_

"You know, I never saw much of his room. He always broke into mine when he wanted some shoes or something."

"Yeah, well, it helped him. With what Dad did to him, your little makeovers really helped get him through the day."

"You keep saying stuff like that, like what Dad did to him. What did Dad do?"

"It's really not my place to say, wait for Klaus, ask him when he's home."

She squeezed Diego's hand. "I know what you're doing. Acting like this is just another one of Klaus' benders. But it might not. And I don't want Klaus dying to _destroy_ the family like Ben did. So, please."

"I only know because he told me when he was really high, so I don't know how accurate it is, but Dad- you know that cemetery about a mile from the mansion?"

"Yeah?"

"Sometimes those benders weren't benders. When Klaus acted up, probably since we were eight, as special training, he'd get locked in the mausoleum. To establish contact. When he used to crash with me before he went to prison, he'd get nightmares about it all the time." They usually didn't mention his time in prison. Mostly because Allison felt like shit for not visiting during those three years. Distancing herself from her family for the sake of building her career. 

"I didn't know."

"Yeah, well, you weren't supposed to." A smile touched his lips. "Remember that Halloween where he snuck out of the house and replaced himself with another kid who was trick or treating dressed like him?"

"It took Dad four days to notice, yeah. Your little band?"

"Oh, you mean my excuse to let Klaus scream at something productively?" he laughed. "I mean, if anybody lived _sex, drugs, and rock and roll_."

"I should... probably call Vanya. She should be back from her audition."

* * *

By morning, Allison had filled up Vanya's answering machine. Or, more accurately, she'd filled it up at about five, and continuously kept calling in case she picked up. She couldn't be mad enough that she was screening her calls. 

Right?

Her school wasn't open yet, either. Anxiously, they all reconvened in the sitting room, watched by the glass eyes of Dad's trophies.

"So, with what Five said the other day," Luther began, clearing his throat. "We should consider arrangements."

"What?"

"Are you kidding?"

"It's been two days, Luther!" 

Among the chaos, Vanya walked in, with Leonard. Of course.

"What's going on here?" 

Allison ran over to Vanya to hug her, as though she'd fall through the cracks next. "Thank God you're okay, I've been trying to get a hold of you all night."

"Allison- what's wrong?"

"Can we say this in private?" Allison asked, eyes drifting over to Leonard. 

"If you can say it to me, you can say it to him, too."

"When those people broke into the house, Vanya. They took Klaus. Diego followed them and found an empty, bloody motel room."

"I keep telling you, he's dead," Five said.

At those words, Vanya returned the embrace, though she was stock-still. And Leonard- was Leonard _smiling_? "Leonard, I think you should go. I'm good from here." He left, the same way they came in through the old butcher shop, apparently, and Allison slowly broke the embrace. "So, what's the question?"

"He could still be alive," Diego said. "We don't know how far he could've gone, he always was a flight risk."

"I'm with Diego," Allison agreed. "It's not fair to have this vote now."

"Vanya?" Five asked. "Since I guess we're voting."

"What's the harm in waiting a few days? I'm with Allison. We can have this talk every couple weeks. Okay?"


	3. Chapter 3

One night passed.

Two nights.

Vanya stopped sleeping at home. 

"You know, I have a concert in a couple days, if you want to get away from it all," she offered. "I, uh, I got first chair the other day. I didn't want to interrupt with Klaus, and everything."

Allison gave her a small hug. "No, we'll all be there. There's no way that you could stop us. We all need each other, now more than ever."

"When are you going back to Hollywood?" Vanya asked. That was the question, wasn't it? She was the only one with a life that would take her far away. Back in her youth, it gave her comfort to be where Dad couldn't get her. Now, it just put a strain, to have Claire so far away. But she was so far away in LA, too. She didn't even have visitation.

"I got a court approved therapist out here. I'm going to give him a month. And, if not, I'll-" she had to take a deep breath. Allison never lost her composure. The Rumor never lost her voice. "I'll stay to help with arrangements. Do you want a ride to your apartment?"

"No, I'm fine. You've done more for me in the past week than you have in, like, 30 years of being your sister."

This was a stupid offer. Was it stupid? Was it paranoid? She just wanted to keep track of Vanya and make sure she stayed safe. "You know, Klaus' room is still soundproofed, if you want to practice at home."

"Why are you trying to get me to stay? Is this about Leonard?" Any sort of softness that had broken through had hardened up into defensiveness again. "He's not going to hurt me, and I don't need you telling me-"

"No. What? I'm going to-fine. I don't like him. But you're your own woman and I don't have to like _every_ person you date. I mean, Klaus absolutely hated Patrick. I wasn't a fan of most of his boyfriends, if you could call them that. I'm just horrified of those people coming back and taking you, too. We've already lost so much, between Dad, and Ben, and Mom, and now Klaus. Just keep in touch, yeah? I need you safe."

"If I don't, are you going to fill my answering machine again?" Vanya asked, a smile starting to poke through.

She laughed a little. "Probably. And congratulations on first chair. You deserve it." 

* * *

Diego was good at sneaking into the station, or at least, getting someone to sneak around for him.

As they sat in a booth at Griddy's, he gave Agnes the money for both of their coffees. 

"So, do you have the forensics from the crime scene?" he asked Beaman.

He got out the folder. "I shouldn't be telling you this, but you're the prime suspect. Your prints were all over the scene, plus, with your past relationship-"

"That's bullshit." He wasn't smart, or good at law, or acknowledging the constitutional rights of Defendants, but that sounded like a weak case, even to him.

"And that's why I'm meeting you on my own and not with a squad right now. You always sucked at our law classes, anyway. Dumbass kid still running around you're bigger than the law because your dad had money."

"That's what she said, too."

"Where did you think I got it from?" 

"The samples?"

"We didn't have enough time to run full DNA tests, but weird thing is, most of the blood on the scene wasn't hers. Type AB+, loaded up with drugs." _Most of the blood._ More than Eudora. How could he even _survive_ that.

"Other than the fingerprints and personal relationship, what do they have?"

"Not much."

"Then don't worry about it. Right? Thanks. And, uh, could you search local hospitals for a description for me? Tall white man, intoxicated, curly brown hair, umbrella tattoo on his wrist and 'Hello' and 'Goodbye' tattoos on his hands?"

"Jesus, Diego. Is that what this is about? We don't need your family drama after we _just_ lost our best detective."

"He went missing, and he's homeless, so he was legally declared dead like, five years ago. Please."

"Which number is it?" he asked, hesitantly.

"Four. Seance."

"Oh, the popular one," he smiled. "Yeah, I used to see him on the streets all the time. When I told him I was a cop, he had me call you up to get his ass out of the fire. Where'd that kid go wrong? Everybody loved him."

Sometimes he forgot what those strangers thought of Klaus. How he presented a fun-loving face to the world and hid the one that screamed at night terrors until the drugs silenced him. "He just put his best face to the magazines. He's had a problem since before we started doing missions."

"I'm sure he'll turn up. He always does. Right?"

"I'm pretty sure that foreign sample was my brother's."

"Wait. Do you mean he-"

"I mean, whoever killed Eudora probably has him. If he's alive."

* * *

Vanya hadn't been on a date with Leonard since Klaus had gone missing. It still felt weird, to be away from her family at a time like this, but she had to be an adult about this in her life, at least. She couldn't rely on her family, that pressure would just create fractures in the family. Like with Ben.

"So, I haven't seen you since your house. It's crazy, right?"

"What's crazy?" she asked, looking at the figurines in his shop. A dozen or so clocks ticked in the background, all perfectly synced. As they shifted their weight, the floorboards creaked. Strange, she hadn't noticed those noises even a few days ago.

"I mean, with your brother. When are you having the funeral?"

She put down the duck she was examining. "Why do you think that's even remotely appropriate to ask that?"

"Five said he died."

"We haven't gone public with the fact that Five is back." She took a step back. Of course. He knew about Allison's past despite the fact she was more famous for movies than her powers at this point. She was recognizable for that _damn_ book. "Nobody's seen him in sixteen years, you shouldn't know his face like that."

"Well, the face was familiar from a couple of magazines."

"Why do you care about my brothers and sister, anyway?"

"Isn't it a normal thing to ask about? Child stars?" There it was. A tic, a waver in Leonard's voice. "I thought you didn't like him."

"I was having a _fight_ with him, with all of them. That doesn't mean I want my brother _dead_."

"If they treated me the way they treated you, from your book-" And there it was, the sick affirmation from Allison. A fan. Someone who got close to her just to learn about the secret inner workings of the Umbrella Academy.

"I think we're done." She picked up a bag, not paying attention to which strap was hers, and left the shop. He wasn't safe. "Fans" were never safe. He'd never leave her or her family be. The ticking of the clocks overwhelming her until she _felt_ them break. All of them, everything in the store, snap.


	4. Chapter 4

Freezing rain came down in sheets as Ben sat on the bus, watching as the driver opened the door at the end of the line… and nobody boarded. Definitely not the gangly, curly headed form of his brother. This wasn’t right, something wasn’t right. He couldn’t feel the _tug_ he felt all the time around Klaus, only an emptiness eating away at him like it occasionally would since his death.

Right now, all that were on the bus were a human or two and some ghosts, the kind who didn’t know they were dead yet, or the kind that were scared of what would happen if they moved on so they sat there, in the limbo of unlife, because limbo is better than Hell.

Ben supposed he fit into the latter category of ghosts. He supposed he could leave, but what about Klaus? He couldn’t leave him alone (he had just left him alone). And with all he killed, if there was anything after being a ghost, Ben doubted he’d be judged favorably. Maybe he wouldn’t even be in a traditional afterlife. Maybe the Horror would drag him to whence it came, and he’d spend all of eternity trapped with the being which had brought him such pain and trauma in life.

_Klaus wouldn’t give up on you. He’s not dead, just missing. Diego knows all his haunts, he’d know by now if Klaus was dead._

Not that he’d blamed Klaus for running as far as he could from the ghosts that followed Hazel and Cha Cha. Just for _running away to get high_ before Ben could join him to keep vigil, to shout him awake when sketchy figures approached the alley and remind him to get into a bus terminal to keep warm for the night.

Wherever he was, because Klaus wouldn’t dare leave Ben alone and move on into afterlife without him, he hoped he was okay.

* * *

Vanya was practicing her solo whenever she heard a knock on her door, surprised to see her sister with coffee and a bag when she opened it. It was surprising, that Leonard hadn’t tried to come back. Maybe he learned and knew better than to try to re-enter her life, and the lives of her siblings, at least at this point in time.

“I wasn’t expecting you until after my concert,” Vanya said, placing her violin in her case.

Allison offered her a coffee and sat on the couch. “Yeah, well I wanted to get you a present.”

“As much as I appreciate the coffee, I can afford my own,” she said with a small smile, accepting it. “Hey, I’m sorry about freaking out about Leonard. You were right. Just, please don’t gloat.”

“Right about what? Did he try to hurt you?”

“No, he’s a _fan_. He recognized Five and was obsessed with how Klaus might be dead and when I told him to drop it and left our date, I haven’t seen him since.”

“ _Shit_ , Van. I’m sorry. I just kind of thought he was a dick. Are you doing alright?”

“Yeah, but we can talk about this after the concert. Decide to grab coffee while you were out shopping? I thought you said you hated the clothes around here.”

“This isn’t for me.” She handed over the large paper bag, and it was surprisingly heavy. Inside was a stark white fabric. “I thought my sister could use something to show off what a star she is. I had Five take your normal suit out of the apartment to the tailor and I had him make something a little special.”

She heard Allison’s voice, honest, steady, not how it sounded when she acted, her heartbeat calm, a little excited, but not panicked. “Allison, I can’t accept this.”

“It’s a tailored suit. I’m not going to make you wear it tonight or anything, but it’s not exactly returnable. Consider it that special thing in the back of your closet, if nothing else. Do you want to try it on?”

She nodded, and took it back to her room while a recording of the piece Vanya was to play tonight played in the background. Allison was right, the suit fit perfectly, but why did Allison do something so big? The music started to build in her head, and she had to remember to let the sound through and not let it build. Just like Dad’s notes said.

* * *

Five nervously paced in the sitting room. Luther hated it, it made him nervous just to watch the frenetic energy his brother had. “I don’t get it. It’s supposed to be _today_. It’s what all the papers said. April 1st, 2019. I saw that paper hundreds of times. Nothing changed, why is everything okay?”

Luther didn’t want to say it. He didn’t want to speak ill of the dead. But, it was the only way to make Five stop worrying. “I think you’re forgetting that something pretty important changed. When you said you found our bodies, did you find Klaus’ body?”

“Yeah, he was the only one I could see the tattoo on, it’s how I identified you—” Five seemed to pick up on the implication pretty easily. “You mean that taking Klaus out of the timeline fixed it?”

“Well, we’ve been more focused on keeping track of each other ever since he died.” Luther expected to hear Diego come from anywhere to say no, Klaus wasn’t dead, for the thousandth time, stop saying that. Because Luther and Five were the only ones who had accepted that Klaus probably had died.

But, no, Diego hadn’t been seen much since Klaus went missing, apparently on a mission to find his killers. He’d promised to be at the concert, but that wasn’t for several hours. Last he checked up on him, he was referencing every car that was at that motel with every other car at motels across the city.

“I know I said I was prepared to sacrifice a single person if it meant saving billions, but I didn’t know it’d be him,” he sighed, drinking out of one of Dad’s bottles of bourbon in a manner that resembled Klaus, albeit more coordinated. “Well, I guess the hellrider isn’t riding.”

It was half an hour later that Diego came back, the shit beat out of him, but victoriously opening the bag he was carrying, showing two masks. “Any chance Mom can fix me up before the concert?”


	5. Chapter 5

Playing in first chair should be the proudest moment of Vanya’s life. The culmination of all her hard work since she was eight years old should make her feel happier, and without her meds, she was able to focus. Every eye in the audience was on her, using the violin to control her powers and draw their attention, their praise. _That_ , she was proud of. In a way, it was a slap in the face to Dad posthumously. _So much for ordinary, and you didn’t have to break me_.

However, there was an emptiness that ate at her where there should be joy. Allison, Diego, Luther, and Five were all sitting in the seats reserved for them, but there were two seats left empty. Klaus and Ben. Ben’s seat was always left empty at family gatherings, partly as per Klaus’ request, partly because no matter how long ago Ben’s death was, it never felt right to celebrate anything without him. It never felt right to do _anything_ as a family if Ben wasn’t there, because even if he died 10 years ago, it was admitting that there was a hole in the family, and well, the last time that happened, Diego went to the Police Academy, Allison went to Hollywood, and Klaus ran away. Even after death, Ben was what kept everybody together.

She supposed the same had to go for Klaus, now.

Five was nervous the entire time, apparently waiting for the world to end somehow. After all, today was the day, when they would all die in nuclear fire or whatever horrifying event, but the day was _so close_ to being over. What would happen was, that they would all go out after this, Allison made reservations for dinner. What would happen was, they would all go home and Mom would have her new room cleaned up for the night and that Pogo would inevitably worry about something.

The world wouldn’t end, not tonight. Not as the applause from Vanya’s solo washed over her, filling her with the energy shed expended during the performance to keep everybody’s attention.

Dinner was, in fact, filled with congratulations over a table filled with food, mostly for Luther. It was a swanky place uptown, the kind that served tiny portions at massive prices, and suddenly, Vanya didn’t feel so out of place in her white suit that had gotten her so many compliments from the orchestra members and even her siblings, or at least the ones who weren’t in the scheme. Something told Vanya that Five and Allison already knew how Vanya would look in it. It was a quiet affair, when Five, already more than a little drunk, sighed.

“I’ve been trying to stop the apocalypse for 45 years, and now that it’s not happening, I don’t even know what to do with myself.”

“How do you know it’s not happening?” Vanya asked.

“Because your body wasn’t with us but Klaus’ was. Whatever happened, taking him-“

“Can we not, for just _one_ night, act like it’s a good thing that our brother’s disappearance stopped the apocalypse?” Allison asked, eyes a little wet. “It’s Vanya’s special night. We should be celebrating her, instead.” She raised her glass in a toast, nudging Diego to do the same. “To a truly _extraordinary_ performance.”

“I’ve never heard you play like that before,” Luther admitted. “I mean, I know I never paid much attention to you playing in the first place, but tonight was something else.”

“Well, you haven’t heard me play since I went to boarding school, that might have something to do with it.” Telling about her powers really shouldn’t be done in such a public place, and honestly, nobody in the family had heard her play since they were kids, except maybe Klaus. After Vanya went to music school, he got Dad’s blessing to knock down the connecting wall between their tiny rooms to make one about the size of Luther or Allison’s, under the condition that Vanya bunked with Klaus when she came home for holiday breaks.

That was about the time Klaus would start to disappear for the whole day and come home for dinner, if he did at all. It was about the time Klaus started keeping pills in stuffed animals, though Vanya pretended not to notice.

“It really does mean a lot that you came today. I wasn’t sure that you would, what with everything happening. I thought you’d be keeping watch for the end of the world or whatever.”

Five spoke up. “After realizing that…” he cleared his throat. “The timeline changed, I figured we could go for a night to celebrate.”

“He’s not dead,” Diego said, looking at everyone. God, she hadn’t noticed how he looked like shit. New cuts on his face, those would definitely scar, a swollen lip. “Those freaks in masks said he got away with something of theirs. My guess is he’s probably at a friend’s place healing up.”

“When did you talk to them?” Allison asked, a little hope in her voice.

“When I did something I won’t talk about in public. But believe me, they wouldn’t have dared lie to me.”

The rest of dinner passed, like most Hargreeves family meals, in silence. For Vanya, though, it meant hope that Klaus was still out there, somewhere, maybe a rehab, maybe a bus far away, but he escaped, and that meant Five could be wrong about two things in one day.

“What did you do?” Vanya asked, once they were back inside the Academy, as Diego was cleaning his knives.

“What I had to. I had to make sure I was only avenging one person, not two.” He showed her the duffle bag that held the children’s masks, the ones that invaded their home. “I’m sorry I said what I said when it happened. But I already lost two brothers, and as much as we might not like each other, we’re family. I know it, Klaus knew it better than most of us.” And, for the first time that Vanya could remember, she got a hug from her brother, and while she was glad she changed out of the white suit so Diego’s grimy sweater didn’t get her dirty, she knew it was for the both of them. “We’ll find him, as a family.”


End file.
